The uncut interview of Stephen Colbert's visit to Google's New York office. You can find Stephen's book on Google Play here: http://goo.gl/Jyujo .

America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't is more of a coffee-table book, with large color pictures, and chapter photos that require the use of included 3-D glasses. It falls somewhere between I Am America and the Daily Show faux-textbooks America (The Book) and Earth (The Book), which used that organizing principle to their advantage. The premise follows the many apocalyptic views of the past four years, claiming America has gone off the rails and completely lost its way, and that only this book offers the true path to restore America's greatness. Which was never really gone, because it's America.

The best idea America Again mocks is the one contained in its title. In particular, it skewers Newt Gingrich's 2011 book A Nation Like No Other, which claimed, "America's exceptional greatness is not based on that fact that we are the most powerful, most prosperous—and most generous—nation on earth. Rather, those things are the result of American Exceptionalism." That is one preposterously arrogant whopper, which America Again exploits as an illogical chicken/egg position. The subtle difference between a beneficial amount of pride and the unchecked belief in exceptionalism is ripe for mockery.

Stephen Colbert has been playing Stephen T. Colbert since 2005. In those seven years, he's built an impressive mythology to his character, a funhouse mirror held up to shame all other egomaniacal pundits for their hubris. But while the shtick is still reliably funny on television, it doesn't translate as well into print, because a book doesn't have television's immediacy. There's no Super PAC plotline, just a bunch of chapters that respond to issues a bit too late. Colbert and his staff are still extraordinarily funny, but in reaching for a middle-of-the-road coffee table humor book, America Again finds the limits of their comedic talent.

Hosted by Eric Schmidt
Directed by Lee Stimmel

It's slow, but you just never know where the plot's going.

We have asked our employees what questions they have.

I'm going to give you the first question.

No, the questions have asked the employees.

So the anonymous question from Michael Jones goes like this.

That sounds like an anonymous name, actually.

I don't understand the title, America Again, Rebecoming the Greatness That We Never Weren't.

This is, of course, your new book, which is already the number 1 bestseller in the nation.

All of this is logical and fine, although obviously Yoda-esque.

But then, case A, never were, was the impression that you were trying to create, would be a perfect conclusion.

Taken in toto, this would be a clever play on words, meaning once again becoming the country we hypothecate had built in myth or a fable.

Case B, never weren't, which is what you chose.

MD, PhD, PhD, PhD, and PhD, PhD, PhD, which means we never were not and thus never have been.

And thus the whole phrase is once again becoming the country we have always been.

This is strictly logical, which you cannot become, which you're not at present." What do you say to this?

This is the hardest and toughest criticism of your title that I have ever

Michael, the fool says in his heart there is no God, but by God he means that thing then which no greater thing can be conceived.

But by conceiving of that thing, he automatically defines God as whatever he can greatest imagine.

Therefore, God does exist because he has imagined that thing, which must be greater in reality than in his imagination."

Those of you who are not familiar with Saint Anselm's ontological argument, I'll boil it down for you again.

America again, re-becoming the greatness we never weren't, has to be written this way.

Because clearly our country's in trouble, yes?

You can tell because I am the country and I'm all beaten up on the cover here.

We want to re-become the greatness, right?

But if I said we never were, then that would mean America was never great.

But if I said that we presently aren't, that would mean I'm criticizing America, which you mustn't ever do.

Therefore, it's America again, re-becoming the greatness we never weren't.

Unless you've got something bad to say about America, Eric Schmidt.

Do you have something bad to say about America?

Just let me know, because I'm sure all these people and YouTube would love to know what problem you've got with the US of A, mister, because I don't and I've proven it with a title that makes no sense.

But I thought You just convinced us that it did.

The title is a paean to the Republican Convention, for instance.

The Republican Convention said, America is great, and we mustn't listen to these people who criticize our country and do not think it's the greatest country in the world.

And then in the next sentence, they would say, we must return to greatness.

They would say it sometimes in the same breath.

American exceptionalism means the rules don't apply to us.

But the feeling on the right is that we are losing the game of being a country.

And so this was trying to capture both of those feelings.

There's a cognitive dissonance that constantly exists on the right.

And even more strongly now, that we must return to a greatness that we presently have.

I'm stopping you in the middle of asking me a question.

I've been told I have to keep my pants on, but that's it.

Did anyone recognize Stan Anselm's argument for the ontological existence of God?

Move to the head of the class where you already are.

You pretty much ran for president and raised a super PAC and so forth.

I ran as much for president as I wanted to avoid violating federal law.

And it occurs to me that you might want to, you're from South Carolina originally, I think.

I want Nikki Haley to just appoint me to Senate.

People are asking me, are you going to run for Senate?

I'm honored by what you're implying and by the groundswell that I've felt.

But obviously, that's something I have to take up with my family and my pastor before I decide whether to take that position.

think that Bill O'Reilly would be a better choice?

But he's a very talented man and I sincerely admire his broadcasting abilities.

But, you know, you're locked in a deathly battle.

Bill's got a book out called, Killing Kennedy.

And I admire his obsession with terrible things happening to presidents.

He's got, killing Lincoln, killing Kennedy, sodomizing Coolidge.

And on, he was on Jon Stewart's show, and he said his next book's going to be called Killing Colbert.

And it broke my character's heart so much to hear him say, hear Papa Bear say that.

So we launched Operation Killing, killing Kennedy, where I'm just telling my audience out there, I'm not telling you to buy my book.

But I'm just reminding them, if you're going to buy my book, and you are, if you're going to buy my book, just do it all in 1 week so we can leapfrog at least 1 of his killing books.

Which week do you want us to all buy your book?

Go right now and go to a local bookstore, a small bookstore, a big bookstore, online.

People are going to pay you lots of money to buy your book?

It's like going to like, it's like that 1 that's named after a rainforest.

We got to stop making books out of that rainforest.

Do you get a physical book from you guys, or is it all the e-book thing?

Yeah, we'll get it through your publisher.

If you're willing to pay less, which you should, because if you pay less price, they include more book.

I'm not going to give any of this stuff away for free.

I want to explore some of the origin, and I should not turn this into an Android commercial.

And Android is 5 times larger than the iPhone.

So people will actually be reading your book on the most popular operating system.

It's got kind of like that slightly pebbled finish

Because you've got to actually go into like a screen to do the volume of external.

I want to explore the antecedent, the precedence that brought you to this view of American exceptionalism.

And I want to understand why A Man for all seasons is your most favorite book?

But I enjoy, but the book form of it is actually 1 of my favorite things to read.

The introduction to A Man for All Seasons, which is by Robert Bolton.

If you've never seen it, it's the story of Sir Thomas Moore, or St.

And it's the story of the man who was a friend of the king, King Henry VIII.

And Henry wanted to get rid of his wife, be done with Catherine, and get Anne Boleyn in there.

And Thomas More wouldn't put his hand on a little black book, raise his hand, and say, I agree with the king.

He just stayed silent, wouldn't say anything.

It's a little different in the play, but less of this in the Robert Bolt version.

I really like it because it's the story about, essentially, is there any part of you, as Moore says, is there any part of you that is not your appetites?

Is there any part of you that is not your fears and not your desires?

In other words, is there any part of you that doesn't want or reject?

Is there any part of you that is just you and from which you cannot retreat?

And I really like, when I first started doing the show, I asked, especially the people who were at the head of my show, for instance, Alison Silverman, who was my original executive.

Because certainly during the Bush administration, there was no criticism of President Bush when he first started.

And- Yes, I'm going to come back to that.

So, and there were so many people who were afraid to be critical of the government at all because you could be called anti-American.

And I love the play, because in this example, he loves the king but can't agree with him in the same way that someone could love their country but not agree with them.

And Can you bring yourself to swim against the tide of all your fellows?

Can you keep yourself with your own opinions and your own ethics and your own morals regardless of the tide of the times?

And the Bush administration was, So many people got swept in the wrong direction, I think.

And what was interesting was that I was in the audience when you gave the speech at the Correspondents' Dinner.

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Stephen Colbert | America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't | Talks at Google